Food Roundup

Openings

• Woodwork at 10132 100 Street NW is now open on Sundays from 4pm.
• The Druid Irish Pub inside the Mercer Warehouse at 10363 104 Street NW is now open for lunch on Fridays. Lunch service is also available on Saturdays and Sundays.
• Qinghua Dumplings is now open at 708 Tamarack Way.
• Tupí Acai Bowls recently held a soft opening of its new location at 10350 124 Street NW.
• Daily Hive listed chain restaurants opening in St. Albert this year, including Jersey Mike's, Five Guys, Waves Coffee House, BarNaan, OEB, Chick-fil-A, Denny's, and Sip Soda Co..
• Orbe, offering modern Asian cuisine, plans to open this spring at 13138 137 Avenue NW.
• Par & Pour, a "social hub" featuring golf simulators and an Italian restaurant, is slated to in August at 9884 47 Avenue NW. It's a partnership between Royal Developments and Golden Sparrow.

Headlines

• The Common saw a 20% increase in sales during Downtown Dining Week in March, a welcome boon heading into a summer that will see increased fees for patios. The Common's sidewalk patio configuration would be subject to $3,700 fee, so the owners are scaling it down from 60 to seats to 20, which will reduce the associated fee to $500. "There are so many variables, things that are outside of our control. It's such a wild card that it just becomes not worth it. That money can pay a grocery bill or pay benefits for our staff," co-owner Kyla Kazeil told Taproot.
• Finalists are posted for the Edmonton Tourism Awards, which will be presented on June 5 at the Edmonton EXPO Centre. The nominees for the Culinary Tourism Award are Dragon Food Tours by the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative, Green Onion Cake Man, and The Old Red Barn in Leduc County. Métis Crossing is up for Attraction of the Year, competing with Old Strathcona Farmers' Market and the University of Alberta Botanic Garden. "Métis Crossing was conceived to share the Métis story from our perspective," said CEO Juanita Marois in a release. "Our goal has always been to create a destination that Métis people, Edmontonians, Albertans, and Canadians can be proud of, and that the world wants to experience. This nomination tells us we're on the right path."
• A Taste for Life is back on April 15, encouraging diners to eat at participating restaurants while supporting HIV Edmonton's food programs and services. Participating restaurants include Highlevel Diner, Acajutla, Evolution Wonderlounge, O2's Taphouse & Grill on 156 Street, the flagship Padmanadi on 101 Street, Blue Orchid Chinese Restaurant, Dolly's Cocktails, Pharoah's Restaurant, and PlayWright. PlayWright's fundraising runs until April 26 in conjunction with the production of Casey & Diana at the Citadel Theatre.
• The first round of Best of Brunch YEG contestants includes Rosewood Foods, Duggan's Boundary Irish Pub, El Corazón, Central Social Hall, and Darling. The event runs May 1 to 30 in support of Edmonton Meals on Wheels, with restaurant registration closing on April 23.
• Stawnichy's Mundare Sausage is offering 100 sausage rings in exchange for information on the identity of thieves who broke in at its Mundare location. The intruders made off with only around $80, while causing between $4,000 and $5,000 worth of damage.
• OTTO Food & Drink and Tulip Sandwich Shoppe are taking guesses on the first day their garden patio will be open, offering the correct guesser a gift card.
• Curtis Cardinal of Tee Pee Treats shared both the opportunities and challenges of opening his food business inside Kakio Studio Cafe at 10219 106 Street NW. "I think this is the first Indigenous café in Edmonton — it's a big thing for me," he told Raven Radio after opening on March 30. "Some days are good, some days are bad. We are at a location that has construction at our front door. It's been hard for people to find this place." Cardinal has future plans for community programs and an outdoor food cart.
• Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl told Daily Hive his favourite spots in Edmonton, naming Bar Bricco as his top restaurant and Happy and Olive as his go-to for coffee.
• Edify shone a spotlight on Ichiban Japanese Cuisine at 8750 149 Street NW. The article praised the 24-year-old strip-mall sushi spot for its lava-lava maki, barbecued eel nigiri, and light tempura batter.
• Sepp's Pizza is offering a free 14" cheese pizza on orders of $60 or more made on its app until the end of April. The app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
• Saskitoba in Nisku is hosting a Ukrainian poutine eating contest on April 23 in support of the Kiwanis Club of Leduc. Contestants must register by April 20.
• NAIT highlighted food industry alumni achievements in its quarterly community roundup, including Bianca Parsons, the executive director of the Alberta Food Processors Association, and Peter Keith, co-owner of Meuwly's, The Hub, and Scale Kitchens, who were recognized by the Edmonton Chamber Awards this year. The piece also featured the many restaurants with alumni connections that were recognized by Edify's Best Restaurants issue, including The Marc, RGE RD, High Dough, and many more.
• Cora Breakfast and Lunch expanded its Edmonton-area footprint through a breakfast-and-lunch-only format that founder Cora Tsouflidou and franchisees said offered a better quality of life than typical restaurant hours.
• AsiaFest YEG is accepting vendor applications until April 30. The event takes place at the Currents of Windermere from Sept. 25 to 27.
• Edify profiled Johwanna "Jojo" Alleyne, the owner of Mojo Jojo Pickles. Her east Whyte Avenue shop at 9627 82 Avenue NW has grown from a farmers' market side hustle into a provincially distributed line of pickles, jams, syrups, and condiments. Alleyne, a former city photographic archivist, said her dill pickle hot sauce has been her fastest-selling product to date. "People ask me how we come up with ideas — like last year we started making a dill pickle hot sauce — and I swear that sometimes we just kick words around until we're like, 'Doesn't that sound good?'" Alleyne said.
• Edna's Non-Alcoholic Cocktail Co.'s margarita mix is returning to Costco Wholesale locations across Western Canada this week, now in a new glass bottle and available as a two-pack.
• Chef Doreen Prei joined CBC Edmonton's Radio Active to share ideas for fresh spring dishes as warmer weather approaches. Prei suggested a fresh salad with peas, mint, arugula, watercress, cucumber, zucchini, seafood, and herb vinaigrette; roasted maitake mushrooms with balsamic vinegar, pine nuts, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, and a garlic butter sauce; herb-crusted lamb with eggplant parmesan; and sablefish with coconut-lemongrass reduction, braised bok choy, and rice.
• Juanita Gnanapragasam of Converse and Cook discussed what defines a casserole — a dish she says almost everyone has an opinion about. "I was able to find the oldest casserole-style recipe, and it comes from around 1250 BC," she said. "Basically, it was pasta sheets layered with grated cheeses and spices."
• Jim Hole explained how to get the best results from garden soil this spring, noting on CBC Edmonton's Radio Active that loam is central to understanding what makes soil productive.
• Curiocity and Daily Hive each published spring roundups of plant shops and garden centres. Curiocity's guide to the best plant shops and greenhouses features Salisbury Greenhouse, Zocalo, and others, while Daily Hive's list of garden centres also highlights Arch Greenhouses, Classic Gardens, and others.
• Chef Chris Hrynyk of Continental Treat Fine Bistro is showing his solo art exhibition, Intersectional Convergence, at St. Albert's Visual Arts Studio Association until May 2. Hrynyk's acrylic cityscape paintings depict urban scenes from Edmonton's Gibson Block to international cities like New York City and Bangkok.
• The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce hosted Consul General Zhao Liying for a business-focused discussion on China-Alberta trade at the World Trade Centre. Zhao pointed to improving trade conditions, noting recent tariff adjustments helped Alberta beef and canola return to the Chinese market, and cited $15 billion in bilateral trade last year as a foundation to build on.
• Rural restaurant owners are seeking provincial approval to hire additional temporary foreign workers, as the province's newly tabled Immigration Oversight Act may require businesses to register with the province before employing TFWs. "The first choice for employers and restaurants is always to hire local Albertans," Cheryl Maitland Muir of Restaurants Canada told CBC's Edmonton AM. "For some positions and shifts, there are just not enough workers available, or they don't have the right skills."

Happenings

Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:

• April 15: Food Fair starting at 10am at Heritage Park Hall
• April 15: Indigenous Taste of the Market starting at 6:15pm at Old Strathcona Farmers' Market
• April 17: Big Balloon Pop Night starting at 7pm at all Sorrentino's locations
• April 18: Coffee & Chocolate pairing starting at 10am at Delavoye Chocolate Maker
• April 18: Culinary Arts Cook-Off: Cookie-Off Edition starting at 11am at Highlands School

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

• April 24-25: ChocoFest at Millennium Place
• April 25: Tequila Cocktail Mixology Masterclass at Halo Bar and Bistro
• May 1-30: Best of Brunch at various locations

Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.